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This little book is dedicated to my school friends 
and their friends everywhere with best wishes for 
their success. 
l v by 

— The Author. 



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1 \^ 



There's only one method of meetin' life's test; 
Jes' keep on a-striving' an' hope for the best. 
Don't give up the game an' retire in dismay, 
'Cause hammers are thrown when you'd like a bouquet. 
This world would be tiresome — we'd all get the blues 
If all the folks in it held just the same views. 
So finish your work; show the best of your skill, 
Some folks won't like it, but other folks will. 

If you're leadin' an army or buildin' a fence 

Do the most that you kin with your own common 

sense. 
One small word of praise in this journey of tears 
Outweighs in the balance 'gainst cartloads of sneers. 
The plants that were passin' as common-place weeds 
Oft' prove to be jes' what some sufferer needs. 
So keep on a-goin' — don't stay standin' still, 
Some folks won't like you, but other folks will. 

— Washington Star. 




(Cover designed by P. O. Lanham.) 



©CLA369589 



9to 



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Copyrighted, 1914 
By CEOBA BELL LANHAM 



APR -6 




ONLY A BARB 

iss Melvina Perkins sat and 
watched for the coming of Pen- 
olope Leigh, then she went to 
the telephone and called for 
her: 

"Hello?" 

"I want Frank Leigh's resi- 
dence. ' ' 
"Is this Pennie?— What?— Well, this is 
Melvine and I want you to come right up 
here and try on this dress — I'm tired of 
waitin' — Alright, see that you do." 

Turning from the telephone Melvina so- 
liloquized : 

"She'll come just when she gets ready, 
and I can just wait. She is mighty busy 
though. Gettin' ready to go off to col- 
lege is upsettin' to a body's nerves. 
Lawee! I most have nervous prostration 
gettin' ready to go to the county seat, 
to the Fair or to the Chautauquie, I don't 
believe I could stand the strain of goin' 
away to stay three months to a stretch 
and all strangers, too. 

"I'll jest figer up how much she will 
owe me when I am all through ; $4.00 f er 
makin' that sky-blue silk; $2.50 fer the 
white embroidery dress; $3.00 fer the 
white wash silk dress trimmed in white 
silk lace; $6.00 fer the Nell Rose silk 
with the train to it (any body what wears 
dresses with train to 'em has to pay fer 
'em). 

"Now, let me see? Is there anything 
else? Oh, yes; fer fixin' over that old 
tan suit, I'll charge her $1.00; now I'll 
add it up, naught, naught, one, seven, ten, 
eleven, twelve, thirteen, sixteen; sixteen 
dollars and fifty cents. My ! but that is a 
big bill, and just when she'll be wantin' 
her money to go to college — well, I'll just 
make it even $15.00 fer I want to get the 
job of makin' her weddin' clothes when 



[4] ONLY A BARB 

she gets married. — There she is, sooner 
nan I expected her." 

Melvina flew to the door to meet the 
plain slender girl who hurried into the 
room with many apologies for any delay 
she might have caused. She tried on the 
dress and made suggestions occasionally. 
She was quiet and would never be called 
pretty unless one looked only at her large 
soulful eyes. 

When she reached home her mother was 
waiting for her in the neat little sitting 
room and smiled a pleased little smile as 
her daughter entered the room. 

"Well, how is your dress coming?" 

"It looks quite well, but the color is 
very deep in the day, but of course I'll 
only wear it when I go to swell parties 
in the evening. Don't you think I ought 
to have a party coat, Mother?" 

"I shouldn't wonder, but I will send 
that to you, for our funds are getting low. 
I want you to have plenty of spending 
money. It will help you to make a good 
impression at the first." 

"Mother, you are so smart and good, 
and you have never been to college, I just 
couldn't ever be as good as you." 

"O, my darling, I want to see all my 
ambitions fulfilled in you, and I have so 
longed for an education and could not 
have it, and all your life I have looked 
forward to the time when you would enjoy 
college life and there develop all your 
mind and body and soul and then come 
back to me with your love for me still 
unchanged. 

"I never had a chance to enjoy life and 
young friends with tastes and ambition 
like my own,, for I had to work and did 
not have time to cultivate the acquaint- 
ance of the more educated folk. ' ' 

"But, Mother, you are my ideal of a 
woman, you live for others, love God, are 
always kind and forgiving, neat, ambi- 



ONLY A BARB [5] 

tious and naturally intelligent, and I love 
you more than all the world and you will 
see that I will be as popular at school as 
you wish and study hard and come home 
crowned with honors and still with all 
my love, for you." 

She kissed her mother tenderly and 
slipped on a gingham apron and hummed 
softly as she moved from kitchen to din- 
ing room preparing supper and the mother 
dreamed the dreams that only a mother 
can dream, at such a time. 

A week later Miss Penelope Leigh with 
a large trunk carefully packed with 
dresses, not one of which should be found 
in a school girl's wardrobe, and a head 
full of false standards of value, arrived 
in the little college town and registered 
as a student in B University. 

Now Miss Leigh had been directed to 
a boarding-house near the college, but 
found all the other boarders were at least 
Juniors, and to a Freshman that meant a 
year of solitude, as far as house compan- 
ionship was concerned. 

iShe next discovered that the merry 
group of girls seated on the ground in 
front of the Library were not to be joined 
without invitation and that such invita- 
tion was to be received in the attitude 
of a benediction by the one so fortunate 
as to receive it. 

She found that the pillow never reveiled 
the secret ''weeps" it witnessed and that 
crying did not improve her appearance 
in any way, also, that her clothes did not 
fit in to the styles, even in the widely 
varied catalog of college styles. 

She soon found that the hardest student 
was rarely popular. In fact the person 
who knows more than you do is not a per- 
son you admire, or if you do you content 
yourself with "distance lending enchant- 
ment." It is more congenial to have a 
companionable friend with whom you can 



[6] ONLY A BARB 

exchange ideas on the plan that, 'a fair 
exchange is no robbery." 

She soon knew the greatest thing in 
the college world was not the learned pro- 
fessors, the college president, or the stu- 
dent body but the Frats and Sororities, so 
she decided she would belong to the best 
National Sorority and go with the most 
popular Prat man in school, but alas! and 
alack! she still had much to learn! 

All during this discovery she wrote to 
her mother the cheeriest little letters, tell- 
ing of the nice girls in school, of the grand 
parties that were given, of the pretty 
dresses and the fine young men who were 
there. She did not say that she was or 
was not present, and from the tone of 
the letters her mother could never guess 
how she had seen or learned about the 
people and parties of which she wrote. 

In disappointment one is always either 
bowed or proud, and Penelope was by 
degrees, each. Sometimes she met girls 
with a " hang-dog-expression" which was 
amusing to the merry crowd and next time 
she would pass them haughtily and only 
nod. 

She made her next mistake by asking 
to be taken into a Sorority, who made 
such a joke of it, that poor Penelope 
wished she was dead several times until 
she realized they wouldn't care if "she 
did go to the garden and eat worms," 
then she began to think logically and soon 
became acquainted with that very 'uncom- 
mon sense: common sense. 

It was almost time for the final examina- 
tions before Penelope had received an in- 
vitation to a select affair of any kind and 
when she read this invitation, to a little 
tea to be given by one of her classmates, 
she let loose all her pent up feelings, and 
cried as she had not cried since her first 
two weeks in college, but after she bathed 
her eyes and had a good night's sleep, 



ONLY A BARB [7] 

she was surprised to see the bright happy- 
face which smiled back at her from the 
mirror the next morning and even her 
German teacher remarked as she left the 
class room: "You are making some de- 
velopment, Miss Leigh," which was a 
compliment. 

Penelope blushed and smiled and lifted 
her eyes to meet those of Tom Bradly, 
the Captain of the Foot-ball Team. 

He gave her a look of recognization 
which was more than she had received 
since making the acquaintance of the men 
of the school. 

In consequence of all these flattering 
attentions she seemed to "blossom out" 
for the little party, and she had had so 
much time to think and read and all the 
wit which she imagined was delighting 
the ears of the students at the longed for 
parties, she had memorized, and was de- 
lighted to find that all the jokes she knew 
were very entertaining to her listeners. 

She had the satisfaction of feeling that 
although she had been invited to but one 
party during her Freshman year, it had 
been a success and that the one chance 
she had to measure up socially, scored in 
her favor. 

She passed all examinations well and 
left school at the end of the first year with 
the consciousness of having made a favor- 
able impression with her teachers. 

Had she been so unfortunate as to have 
been unable to return to the University the 
following fall, her idea of the benefits 
of a college education would have re- 
mained unfavorable. She regarded a Uni- 
versity as the least democratic institution 
in the world, yet she often wondered if 
she would have cared to go back, if she 
had not had the happy memory of that 
one party. 



II. 




enelope missed the round of 
recitations and the interesting 
student body but she found the 
restful home life and the con- 
genial companionship of her de- 
voted mother very pleasant. 
Her friends complimented her 
on being her own self, still and 
unspoiled. 

She studied Painting and Expression of 
teachers who spent one day each week in 
the little village. 

The blending of colors, the laws of har- 
mony and artistic arrangement began to 
develop in the mind of the little school 
girl and the helpful association of these 
ambitious teachers, who found time to cul- 
tivate the friendship of their pupils, was 
of untold value to the future of Pene- 
lope. 

So the little Penelope who entered the 
University in the fall, wearing a plain 
little hat with modest trim, a Peter-pan 
dress and possessing an air of self posses- 
sion which comes from the consciousness 
of strength to overcome, met her acquaint- 
ances of the previous year with a modest 
but frankly pleaded expression. 

Indeed, she had in a measure forgot- 
ten some of the stings of the past year, 
and was looking forward with pleasant 
anticipation to a happy future, deter- 
mined not to repeat any of the mistakes 
of the past year. 

Blessed Memory! You make us draw 
the kindly mantle of Charity called For- 
getfulness, over the unkind, stingy places, 
and veil from our eyes the unpleasant and 
help us to remember only the good and 
the beautiful. 

At the end of the second year, Pene- 



ONLY A BARB [9] 

lope had grown in favor with both stu- 
dents and teachers. Her grades were good 
and she had won second place in the dec- 
lamation contest. 

She had been invited to several parties 
and had even been on the reception com- 
mittee when the Sophomores gave their 
annual. 

The most unkindest cut of all the year 
was received, however, at this party, just 
as though it was never intended that she 
should be entirely happy. 

As she sat on the railing of the piazza 
just outside the windows, opening out of 
the Library, she heard Tom Bradly say to 
a girl of a Greek letter society: 

"What is the matter with that little 
Leigh girl, she don't seem to get 'in' at 
all?" 

She listened breathlessly, for the an- 
swer to the question she had so often 
asked herself. 

"0, she is only a Barb, I guess that's 
all." 

"Only a Barb," said Penelope to her- 
self, then that was her crime, and didn't 
she know how to suffer her penalty? 

The third year was Penelope's Junior 
year, and she began to find that even a 
Barb could find that life had its com- 
pensations. 

An upper class man or woman is not 
open to the running criticism to which a 
"Freshie" is unfeelingly subjected. 

She had resolved too, that she would 
give up trying to beat the other fellow, 
but get a little ahead of herself each day, 
and that she would give to other students 
every bit of help possible. 

She soon became happy in her busy 
helpful life, but deep in her heart was 
that sting "Only a Barb." 

Several young men had been attracted 
to Penelope by her bright mind and pleas- 
ing manners but who in a Greek letter 



[10] ONLY A BARB 

Society could brave the displeasure of a 
Sister Sorority by deliberately choosing 
the society of a Barb? 

Tom Bradly had tried this twice and 
had also asked that Penelope be invited 
to be pledged in the Sister Sorority but 
by this time she was "Only a Barb" and 
thus she was to stay. 

Tom was so busy with foot-ball and 
Frat affairs, and with study incidently, 
that the sympathy for a "Barb" could 
not claim his attention for long. 

He rarely met Penelope and had almost 
forgotten her, when the announcement of 
the Annual Sorority Hop was made. 

This dance was to be given by the larg- 
est Greek letter Society, which was his 
Sister Sorority. 

Tom had been showing no special atten- 
tion to any one girl and had shown an 
utter disregard for all invitations to the 
Sorority parties and now as the invitation 
list was reviewed, there was one brother 
Frat who would be without a partner. 

"Well, we could ask some girl from 
outside for just this once," suggested 
Gladys Darling. 

"We might ask someone whom we 
might wish to pledge later?" said Valeria* 
Chase. 

"0, 0, O, I have it," cried Katheryn 
Kline. 

"We would think you not only had it 
but them, what is IT, pray?" 

' ' Now, listen ! You know that Tom 
Bradly has been so perfectly horrid all 
year?" 

"Yes," came in a hearty chorus. 

"And you also know the Honorable 
Barb?" 

"Yes, what of her? WE don't want 
her?" 

"Now this is my plan. There is nothing 
so sweet as revenge, revenge, my friends, 
I say revenge shall be mine!" 



!-■; 



ONLY A BARB [11] 

"How do you propose to proceed ?" 

"Thusly: we will invite the Barb to 
take Tom and then 'freeze' them; Tom 
don't care for her, and she can't enter- 
tain a man anyway. Now just imagine 
the Barb dancing! But we can get even 
with Tom ! ' ' 

"Just the thing!" they all agreed ex- 
cept Gladys, who said: "I don't think 
it is quite fair to the Barb, really she has 
never offended us in any way, only she 
never bows to us and will not humbly 
greet us with that proper, ' Thou art holier 
than I' air." 

"Why, Gladie! How unjust to your 
> own!" 

"I am determined," cried Katherlyn, 
and that settled it for all time. 

Tom was invited and waited, as usual, 
until the last minute to accept the invita- 
tion. 

"The Barb" was by turns delighted 
and dismayed and then she began to won- 
der if she was to be the target of a joke 
to amuse the crowd. She determined not 
to go, and as suddenly determined to em- 
brace her only opportunity to go to a party 
1; of the "inner circle." 

(She lived twixt hope and fear for days 
and probably would have decided to give 
up the party if it hadn't been for the 
thought of the pleasure that the descrip- 
tion of every little detail would give to 
her mother. 

She had no misgiving about Tom and 
yet she did not trust him any more than 
she did the Sisterhood whose guest she 
was to be. 

She was surprised to receive many lit- 
tle kind attentions from these girls toward 
whom all the eyes of the college were 
turned, for is it not true that the Greek 
letter girls are the standard of correct 
conduct for all the girls in the school? 

The more she learned of the beautiful 



[12] ONLY A BARB 

daily lives of these Sisters, the more she 
admired them and the more she longed to 
be like them. There is no place in the uni- 
verse where a girl can learn life's lessons 
as well as in a college Sorority. 

The girls began to learn some very 
pleasing things about the "Barb" and if 
they had not felt so unforgiving toward 
Tom, it is doubtful if they could have con- 
tinued their policy for the Hop. 

"Girls," said Gladys, on the night be- 
fore the Hop, "that look of questioning 
in the large searching eyes of the Barb, 
haunts me." 

"Well, it is too bad," said Katheryn, 
"but such things have to be." 



$ 




III. 

he very eventful evening ar- 
rived and the last couple to 
appear was the "Barb" and 
Tom. 

The "Barb" wore the Nell 
Rose pink evening dress which 
had been robbed of its train 
and was veiled with a dainty 
shadow lace, edged with black fur; she 
wore her hair high and as this was her 
crowning glory she made it count for all 
it was worth. 

The hint of perfectly rounded arms and 
shoulders which peeped through the 
dainty shadow lace added a touch of be- 
witching beauty unguessed in this plain 
little unassuming girl. 

When Tom Bradly looked at his pro- 
gram he found that no girl had asked him 
for a dance. 

He expected to dance the opening dance 
with Penelope, of course, but had never 
given a thought to the other numbers. 

Penelope danced the first dance and at 
its close realized that she had no part- 
ner for the next dance, or the others on 
her program. 

She asked Tom for the next dance and 
began to think. 

"Mr. Bradly, here is my program and 
when you look at the pleased faces of 
the hostesses here, you can see the an- 
swer to the question I have been asking 
myself ever since I was invited to this 
party." 

"I don't care for myself," said Tom, 
"but it is a shame for you; why did you 
fall into this trap? I thought you a smart 
girl?" 

"I suppose I might as well tell you, 
for nothing will matter much after to- 
night." (Poor soul! How often what 



[14] ONLY A BARB 

we think is the end of everything is only 
the beginning of it all.) 

"You see mother had always planned 
that I should go to college. I never knew 
why, and I don't know that she ever rea- 
soned any further than that I should have 
the pleasure of the social life of a college. 

''I came here expecting to find groups 
of merry hearted girls waiting on every 
corner to greet me with open arms and 
for weeks before I came we had our lit- 
tle town dressmaker looking up the styles 
for college women and we read all the 
fashion notes in the weekly paper and 
even bought a city Sunday paper so we 
might read the fashion and the Beauty 
notes. 

"My folks believed I would be a great 
success at college and I had almost begun 
to hope it might be so. 

"I never got 'in', as you know and I 
couldn't bear to have my mother disap- 
pointed, so I wrote to her about all the 
nice little affairs, the girls and boys, and 
she knows all of you by your first names 
and loves you for all the good times I 
have had (in my letters). 

"I worked the best I knew and thought 
perhaps my time would come but this is 
the end of all hope. I am humiliated and 
will not bore you with my company any 
longer." 

"O, say, come don't take it that way. 
I say, let's beat them at their own game." 

Penelope smiled a ghost of a smile. 

"I wish you would please ask for all 
my dances, you see I am quite 'frozen' off 
the others programs. I will humbly fol- 
low you and I assure you it will be a 
great pleasure to me Miss Leigh." 

The girl hesitated; could she? 

Tom insisted. The more he talked to 
this unattractive girl, the more he found 
to admire. 

She could talk well and intelligently on 



ONLY A BARB [15] 

any subject he could introduce. She 
danced well, was graceful and showed 
strength of character in this ugly situa- 
tion and great love for her mother. 

He found something about her that all 
the other girls had lacked. 

"I am sure you are very kind and yet 
I couldn't bear your sympathy.' ' 

"Sympathy? Why, let me tell you the 
girls have planned this to get even with 
me for past courtesies, and I am the one 
who should receive the sympathy. I don 't 
see why you were chosen to be the 'goat.' 
I suppose they couldn't — " He never fin- 
ished the sentence. 

As the "frozen" couple wove in and 
out among the dancers, Tom exchanged a 
friendly nod here and there, and Penelope 
showed no sign of displeasure. 

"I do believe that Tom Bradly and the 
Barb are having the time of their lives," 
said Katheryn as she paused to rest for 
a minute. 

"I heartily hope they do, for I feel 
like a 'cad' myself," said Gladys. 

The next day after the Hop, the Greek 
letter girls were in the music room of the 
House, "talking it over" when the maid 
announced that Miss Leigh was at the 
door. 

"0, girls, I can't face her!" said Va- 
leria. 

"Katheryn, you were the one who was 
most anxious to have Tom punished, now 
you will have to meet her. ' ' 

"Pikers! I will not meet her alone!" 

"It is a shame to keep her waiting," 
said Gladys. "Martha, show her in." 

The only person at ease in the little 
company was Penelope. She was master 
of the situation. 

"0, how-de-do ?" said each girl in a very 
stiff formal manner. 

Penelope broke the awkard silence. 

"Girls, I wish to thank you for the 



[16] ONLY A BARB 

pleasure which you didn't plan for me, but 
for which you are responsible and since, 
deserve the thanks. 

"This is the first real party I have had 
in the three years I have been here. 

"I want you to know I felt from the 
first that there was 'method in your mad- 
ness' but what it was I didn't know. 

"I came from a little country town 
where the people think that dress and so- 
cial leadership are the two most important 
things in the world and my mother was 
ambitious for me to be a social climber, 
here. I came to your party because I 
wanted to tell her about one real party. 

Your party was a grand success and 
every detail was perfect. 

You girls are truly wonderful and are 
the most beautiful girls in the world!" 

She trembled as she finished speaking 
and with the others sank in seats. 

"0 — we — er — " stammered Valeria, 
. "we all thank you, and Penelope you are 
a dear, and we are very sorry that we 
treated you so." 

"Yes," said Gladys, "can you ever for- 
give us?" 

"We only meant to punish Tom, you 
see he is so conceited." 

"Penelope," cried Helen Burge, "please 
forgive us?" 

"You are just about three years late, 
you really hurt me when you made me a 
Barb, but last night added but little to 
that. I only came to thank you and now, 
good afternoon!" 

The girls looked at each other but no 
one said a word. 

Penelope swept out of the front door 
and closed it quietly behind her. 

"Val, why didn't you say something?" 

"There were no words to express it." 

"We are beaten, dead beat!" they all 
agreed. 




IV. 

he next part of this college 
story has not to do with the 
college but with these young 
ladies. 

It was just after commence- 
ment two years later when 
these Sorority Sisters had gath- 
ered at the beautiful country 
home of Mr. and Mrs. Tom Bradly to 
christen their tiny daughter, the Sorority 
baby. 

Valeria was Mistress of Ceremony. 
"And what does your Highness wish 
the beautiful young lady to be called ?" 
she asked of Penelope as she proudly 
knelt before her. 

"Eugenia," laughed the little mother, 
"Eugenia B. Bradly!" 
"Why the 'B'?" 

"For 'Barb,' don't you see. She is 
'only a Barb,' but her mother hopes she 
will fulfill all her fondest hopes," she 
said. "Why, girls, it was not so long ago 
since my mother was wishing for me just 
what I am wishing for her." 

"Well", said Gladys, "the young 
lady's college career is assured, she can 
never be a 'Barb' ! 

At the close of the pretty ceremony, 
Valeria addressed the tiny personage "A 
toast! A toast! young lady!" 

Eugenia B. beat the air with her fists 
and cooed, "F-f-f-f-f ba-ba-bu-u!" 

"Yes, I understand", said Val, "the 
young lady says she wishes a toast given 
to the greatest 'f-foot-b-ball player of his 
time. All-to-gether girls, here's to the 
long life and happiness of the "Tom, Tom, 
Don 't-care-a-continental, Tom ! ' ' 

And just here the tiny fists waved 



[18] ONLY A BARB 

wildy and the gentle coo swelled to a 

funny little shreik. 
That evening as Tom and the Barb 

stood beside the cot looking at the tiny 

mite which was the consumation of their 

love, Tom said: 

"Why are you so serious, Darling ?" 
"O, I was just wondering if I could 

really have enjoyed all of this, as I do, 

if I hadn't been 'only a Barb' " 



J 



KBLLBT PRINTING CO. TOPBKA 



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